Remix: Like an Onion Inside Out (The Doctor, the Queen, and the TARDIS Remix)
Like an Onion Inside Out (The Doctor, the Queen, and the TARDIS Remix)
My Remixee and I were officially connected via Firefly fandom, but we had other fandoms in common, specifically Supernatural, The Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter, and Doctor Who. And when I say we have those fandoms in common, what I mean is that I know the canon, more or less, but haven't written in them. (I've got one SPN story and a handful of SPN stories I've beta'd, and zip with HP, DW or CoN as far as a track record goes in these other fandoms.)
And given that most of the stories were on the shorter side, I read all of the stories in those fandoms. Afterward my thought was to remix one of the Firefly drabbles. A couple of them had serious potential for Mal & River if not Mal/River. Tempting. But I feared I'd end up generating a large plot, full of world building and wasn't quite ready to repeat that, as last year was plotty world building. (Cue ironic laughter here.) There was a SPN story that had interesting possibilities, but didn't really ping me.
But the weird thing was that
be_themoon's Narnia/Doctor Who crossover story kept niggling at me. The style of the original gave it enough of a frame to build upon, but was snapshots that could be molded a dozen different ways. For example, I'm pretty sure be_themoon was imagining Ten and Susan, though it's never overtly said. I had no problem with the pairing, I adore Ten, but I couldn't figure out where it would fit in canon, particularly without the long shadow of Ten/Rose looming. But it's Remix. I could make it any Doctor or Doctors I wanted.
And I loved the idea of a redemption story. Susan's journey post-Narnia is full of potential for her life to go a variety of ways, how might it go if she met the Doctor? But I didn't just want this to be about the Doctor rescuing her and taking her away from it all, as the Doctor has an ongoing redemption story too. Ideas about Susan and the Doctor's ultimate journeys kept unfolding in my head. Particularly the idea of the two of them meeting over several key moments in their lives/regenerations, often accidentally giving the other what they need at that moment in time. (Think a bit of the format of When Harry Met Sally.) But I kept resisting for several good reasons.
Firstly I don't think of myself as a crossover writer. Though I'm realizing that this is my third (previously there was a cracky BtVS/Passions crossover and a SPN/BtVS one), so maybe I'm as much of a crossover writer as anyone.
Secondly, I'd never written in either the Narnia fandom or Doctor Who. And a new fandom always involves a certain ramping up to speed. Narnia intimidated me because I've read it so many times from childhood forward that writing adult themes about this pure part of my childhood has a certain sacrilegious element to it. On the other hand, Doctor Who fandom intimidated me because I'm not steeped in it. I know little about what comes before Nine offering Rose his hand. (And yes, this story is full of hand holding porn. I know I'm not the only one in fandom into it.) Basically I knew enough to know there were buckets of canon I was clueless about and would have to research.
Thirdly, I'm not British. It's one thing to fake Britishness as a fanfic writer when the source material is faked - a la American-writers/actors-faking-Britishness that's done in BtVS & AtS, but these are two very beloved British fandoms and I didn't want to be flashing my American slip under my British skirt.
Fourthly, I knew I needed to create a Thirteen in order for the story's resolution to work. See: hubris. Besides the ending, which was key, I also needed to skip over the muddle of known/leaked/guessed at with the transition from Ten to Eleven. (The last canon I've seen is Journey's End and particularly with a crossover, I really didn't want to contradict canon any more than necessary. (To me, part of what makes a crossover work is that both canons stay canon.)
Fifthly, but least important, who is going to read a Doctor Who/Narnia crossover?
But the idea of Susan and the Doctor traveling together wouldn't go away, particularly as I thought about the things they had in common and the poignancy of that. So I finally gave in and started writing. Truly one of those times when a story just demanded to be written. Which is why reason number five was never a true encumbrance. I'm all about writing the story I feel driven to tell, with little concern for finding an audience. (Though I do tend to worry about making my betas do tons of work for what may be for nothing other than the art of it.)
I did need to do a bunch of reading up about Doctor Who canon. Could I make work what I wanted to make work? Was I right in remembering that a Time Lord had a finite number of regenerations? Was there canon on anything he is allergic to/hates other than pears? (Thank you to
redeem147 for confirming what I couldn't find related to what was in the original story, but didn't want to use as such.)
To create Thirteen, I knew I needed to generate a personality distinct from Ten, whom I knew I'd otherwise see in my head. (And I was right, serious need to fight that urge throughout.) While Thirteen is a composite of a variety of people/traits/former Doctors & experiences, there's a lot of Ewan McGregor in him. I found these clips of Ewan on Craig Ferguson, which were hugely helpful in imagining the exuberant Scotishness I wanted.
quinara was a saint to lead the Brit pick, particularly with helping suss out what would be period accurate for Susan's life. Most amusingly was realizing the terms I thought were British, but not so much.
Then it was just a matter of having enough time to get the words all down. Last year I thought my remix was long, clocking in at just under 5000 words. This one more than doubled that. With less remix time and several real world conflicts eating into the time, it was tight. I definitely made use of the post, then fix policy.
And in the end, I began to understand why there are those who love a good crossover. I continued to be surprised at the ways these two fandoms could be woven together and had things to say that couldn't be said without the other.
So, yes, very pleased with all the ways this remix challenged me and with the way I've gotten more and more comfortable in finding the key concepts of a story and really making it my own. And most certainly I've been surprised and delighted at the positive response. Thank you!
ETA: Monday and Tuesday edits of the Sunday post.
My Remixee and I were officially connected via Firefly fandom, but we had other fandoms in common, specifically Supernatural, The Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter, and Doctor Who. And when I say we have those fandoms in common, what I mean is that I know the canon, more or less, but haven't written in them. (I've got one SPN story and a handful of SPN stories I've beta'd, and zip with HP, DW or CoN as far as a track record goes in these other fandoms.)
And given that most of the stories were on the shorter side, I read all of the stories in those fandoms. Afterward my thought was to remix one of the Firefly drabbles. A couple of them had serious potential for Mal & River if not Mal/River. Tempting. But I feared I'd end up generating a large plot, full of world building and wasn't quite ready to repeat that, as last year was plotty world building. (Cue ironic laughter here.) There was a SPN story that had interesting possibilities, but didn't really ping me.
But the weird thing was that
be_themoon's Narnia/Doctor Who crossover story kept niggling at me. The style of the original gave it enough of a frame to build upon, but was snapshots that could be molded a dozen different ways. For example, I'm pretty sure be_themoon was imagining Ten and Susan, though it's never overtly said. I had no problem with the pairing, I adore Ten, but I couldn't figure out where it would fit in canon, particularly without the long shadow of Ten/Rose looming. But it's Remix. I could make it any Doctor or Doctors I wanted.
And I loved the idea of a redemption story. Susan's journey post-Narnia is full of potential for her life to go a variety of ways, how might it go if she met the Doctor? But I didn't just want this to be about the Doctor rescuing her and taking her away from it all, as the Doctor has an ongoing redemption story too. Ideas about Susan and the Doctor's ultimate journeys kept unfolding in my head. Particularly the idea of the two of them meeting over several key moments in their lives/regenerations, often accidentally giving the other what they need at that moment in time. (Think a bit of the format of When Harry Met Sally.) But I kept resisting for several good reasons.
Firstly I don't think of myself as a crossover writer. Though I'm realizing that this is my third (previously there was a cracky BtVS/Passions crossover and a SPN/BtVS one), so maybe I'm as much of a crossover writer as anyone.
Secondly, I'd never written in either the Narnia fandom or Doctor Who. And a new fandom always involves a certain ramping up to speed. Narnia intimidated me because I've read it so many times from childhood forward that writing adult themes about this pure part of my childhood has a certain sacrilegious element to it. On the other hand, Doctor Who fandom intimidated me because I'm not steeped in it. I know little about what comes before Nine offering Rose his hand. (And yes, this story is full of hand holding porn. I know I'm not the only one in fandom into it.) Basically I knew enough to know there were buckets of canon I was clueless about and would have to research.
Thirdly, I'm not British. It's one thing to fake Britishness as a fanfic writer when the source material is faked - a la American-writers/actors-faking-Britishness that's done in BtVS & AtS, but these are two very beloved British fandoms and I didn't want to be flashing my American slip under my British skirt.
Fourthly, I knew I needed to create a Thirteen in order for the story's resolution to work. See: hubris. Besides the ending, which was key, I also needed to skip over the muddle of known/leaked/guessed at with the transition from Ten to Eleven. (The last canon I've seen is Journey's End and particularly with a crossover, I really didn't want to contradict canon any more than necessary. (To me, part of what makes a crossover work is that both canons stay canon.)
Fifthly, but least important, who is going to read a Doctor Who/Narnia crossover?
But the idea of Susan and the Doctor traveling together wouldn't go away, particularly as I thought about the things they had in common and the poignancy of that. So I finally gave in and started writing. Truly one of those times when a story just demanded to be written. Which is why reason number five was never a true encumbrance. I'm all about writing the story I feel driven to tell, with little concern for finding an audience. (Though I do tend to worry about making my betas do tons of work for what may be for nothing other than the art of it.)
I did need to do a bunch of reading up about Doctor Who canon. Could I make work what I wanted to make work? Was I right in remembering that a Time Lord had a finite number of regenerations? Was there canon on anything he is allergic to/hates other than pears? (Thank you to
redeem147 for confirming what I couldn't find related to what was in the original story, but didn't want to use as such.)
To create Thirteen, I knew I needed to generate a personality distinct from Ten, whom I knew I'd otherwise see in my head. (And I was right, serious need to fight that urge throughout.) While Thirteen is a composite of a variety of people/traits/former Doctors & experiences, there's a lot of Ewan McGregor in him. I found these clips of Ewan on Craig Ferguson, which were hugely helpful in imagining the exuberant Scotishness I wanted.
quinara was a saint to lead the Brit pick, particularly with helping suss out what would be period accurate for Susan's life. Most amusingly was realizing the terms I thought were British, but not so much.
Then it was just a matter of having enough time to get the words all down. Last year I thought my remix was long, clocking in at just under 5000 words. This one more than doubled that. With less remix time and several real world conflicts eating into the time, it was tight. I definitely made use of the post, then fix policy.
And in the end, I began to understand why there are those who love a good crossover. I continued to be surprised at the ways these two fandoms could be woven together and had things to say that couldn't be said without the other.
So, yes, very pleased with all the ways this remix challenged me and with the way I've gotten more and more comfortable in finding the key concepts of a story and really making it my own. And most certainly I've been surprised and delighted at the positive response. Thank you!
ETA: Monday and Tuesday edits of the Sunday post.